Even twenty years ago, any love felt towards PSone Rayman's luscious art style could quickly turn into hate due to its spikily relentless difficulty barrier, but a cathartic sense of satisfaction could also be found by perseverant gamers who endured to conquer all eighteen of its levels. As a December 1995 EU launch window title, the gaming press were conflicted in how to respond to a 2D platformer that was released during the transition to a fifth generation of consoles, since their most fervent anticipation was focused upon the potential of 3D polygon graphics.

Sadly, another of the PSone's EU launch titles, Rapid Reload, became lost in the mists of time, partly because it was an old-fangled run-and-gun sprite game. Conversely, the two year development time helped to build hype towards Rayman, especially considering that Michel Ancel and his Ubisoft team had shifted creation of the game from its inception on the Atari ST to evolving it on the more powerful Atari Jaguar. The swanky new PlayStation console arrived just in time for Ubisoft to seize the opportunity needed for realising the ambition of Rayman's debut adventure.

A review in the October 1995 issue of the forward-looking UK gaming magazine Ultimate Future Games considered the position of Rayman as a traditional platformer during a period of change, but conceded that the hard work lavished on the sprite artwork was preferable to a less well-realised 2.5D game using polygons – in this case Clockwork Knight on the SEGA Saturn. Regardless of decreasing interest in 2D, the visuals were praiseworthy, with Ultimate Future Games stating that Rayman's graphics were proficient at "proving that the PlayStation has an on-screen palette with more colours than Michelangelo".

With a plot explained by the Magician giving a speech over an animated introduction, the game flaunted the advantages of extra CD-ROM storage from the outset. It was an effective depiction of the balance becoming lost in Rayman's world due to a mysterious orb called the Great Protoon being stolen by Mr Dark – a black hat wearing lookalike of Orko from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – but ultimately the story was conveyed more compellingly by in-game locations and personalities.

In any case, the lavishly drawn backgrounds were more memorable as an embodiment of the adventure than the cartoon plot synopsis. They illustrated a journey spanning from being lost in the deep woods of The Dream Forest, to bounding past piano keys that arch over the curvature of Band Land's hills, and marvelling at the falling snow on the peaks of the Blue Mountains. With six worlds spanning 18 levels, a bullet point on the back of the box chose to focus on Rayman's visuals rather than its content, with the blurb justifiably praising the "eye-popping animations using 65,000 colors!" (American spelling on a PAL box).

Ubisoft treats 2D graphics in PSone Rayman as an art form, so playing it feels like a precursor to the standards set by the UbiArt Framework today. Yet, artistry in Rayman is not just attributed to the visuals, with a music team including composer Rémi Gazel, the game's soundtrack strengthens the portrayal of each quirky location. The jaunty First Steps from the Pink Plant Woods area is instantly recognisable for anyone who gets nostalgic about playing Rayman's first level, and it's impressive how easy it is to recall the game's personalities from only hearing their theme music. For example, Betilla the Fairy has a suitably fantastical tune, while an extra-terrestrial called Joe has a Party at Joe's reggae track.

The diversity of the audio extends to the boss battles, as well as the allies, so when the Puppeteer-like stage curtains lift to reveal a pantomime dame called Space Mama it's apt to hear the whooshing chimes of her Washing Machine from Space song. There are even cheesy moments amongst all the variety, like the bounciness of the world map music, and how the bopping jazz of The Saxophone's Song works in the context of battling Mr Sax. Just as you think that Rayman's music couldn't get better than a tune called Harmony during the Bongo Hills level, you hear the Picture Perfect track while playing either the Eraser Plains or the Pencil Pentathlon stages, and realise that Ubisoft's audio team created one of the most beautiful tunes of the early PSone era.

If your reference point is Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, the first noticeable aspect of the single-player only PSone Rayman is that our hero's movement is more slow and plodding. The PSone game also takes its time for Betilla the Fairy to grant Rayman five permanent powers – abilities that are mostly available from the outset in the modern games. Quickly enough she gifts you a punching telescopic fist, the ability to hang onto platforms, a grabbing fist to swing from flying rings, and a hair helicopter – affectionately referred to as the hairlycopter by Michel Ancel – but the basic power to run doesn't arrive until over halfway through the game. Rayman can't swim, or bounce on enemies' heads, and there is no wall jumping in the PSone title.

It's the temporary powers dispersed by Rayman's friends that provide the cleverest and most welcome diversification to the gameplay. A magic seed from Tarayzan grows plant platforms on demand, just as a super helicopter is more manoeuvrable from the Musician, and a firefly lightens up The Caves of Skops, each of which are inventive novelty alterations to the game's mechanics. Similarly, Flying Blue Elves shrink Rayman to pass through narrow passages, and befriending the Bzzit boss enables you to fly on his back, although it's not a shoot-'em-up segment like riding Moskito in Rayman Origins.

Ubisoft's humour found in titles like Rayman Raving Rabbids was still apparent in the 1995 game, with Rayman posing at a seaside cut-out board for the Photographer to capture a snapshot, which initiates a stage's checkpoint. The flow of sliding down Allegro Presto's chrome bars to build rhythm and timing for your jumps also feels like a gameplay forerunner to speedy modern levels like Can't Catch Me! in Rayman Origins or Castle Rock in Rayman Legends.

While the Allegro Presto level may seem like a brief rise in the game's challenge, it becomes apparent that Rayman presents a persistent impeding wall rather than a gradual difficulty curve. The entire game is intentionally designed around deadly falls, distant checkpoints, instant kill spikes, and pixel perfect jumps or swings on to tiny disappearing platforms. With only three health meter reserves, which can be upgraded with extra energy points, the bombardment of deaths when encountering a confusing new memory test level can be frustrating.

Everyone has a breaking point, so consequently a stage like Pencil Pentathlon comes across as cheap with a dreadful bouncing block section, and trampolines placed directly below sharp spikes. You may need to don sunglasses for the blisteringly bright rainbow pinks that follow in the Space Mama's Crater level, but it's a more tightly arranged area, and ends with a stand-out epic boss battle. The clever boss encounters are a consistent highlight of the game, so Rayman is wise to shiver and bite his nails before facing Mr Stone, or the scorpion Mr Skops.

Therefore, there is no shame to be found from repeatedly inputting a cartwheeling cheat on the Game Over screen for an extra ten continues. The main plot objective is to rescue Electoons trapped in 102 cages, with six cages hidden in each of the main 17 levels, which is clearly stated in the game's manual. Despite this – in a moment reminiscent of completing a time consuming Riddler's Revenge side mission to earn Batman: Arkham Knight's true ending – gamers were surprised and disappointed when they couldn't progress to the sixth Candy Chateau world, because they didn't save enough Electoons to complete Rayman.

In any case, Candy Chateau only featured a single 18th level called Mr Dark's Dare, where you race against Dark Rayman, conquer your fear of clowns, and face Mr Dark. You can always choose to ignore the Electoon cages, and focus upon learning the layouts of the seventeen central levels, which in itself could take 11 hours to beat if you're inexperienced and die often. It becomes more enjoyable to return to completed levels with a knowledge of their design arrangements, and there is a sense of achievement from using your newly received permanent powers to reach hidden areas, in a similar feel to rewards in a Metroidvania game.

Mastering control techniques sees your skill level rise, especially in regard to swinging or using Rayman's telescopic fist, and the trajectory of his punch. With practice you'll be throwing the fist to control falling onto a platform by cancelling your helicopter, or launching a punch and then ducking to hit small Antitoons, plus using the projectile to grab a distant extra life. You'll also understand that jumping to throw a quick punch travels twice as far as when standing still. It's from your time devoted to training in the memory test level design, using skills such as temporary invincibility after receiving a hit as a way to damage boost past enemies like in the Mega Man games, and gaining expertise at using the controls that the fun truly begins. Rayman is a game that rewards a player's mastery – the adept speed-runners who hurry through all 18 levels in under ninety minutes are an example of this – so you'll halve your original play time on a second attempt.

The lasting appeal and enduring influence of Rayman was expressed by Michel Ancel in 2011 when he spoke to Retro Gamer magazine in Issue 90, and he reflected that "Rayman is the guy who helped get me to a place I feel lucky to be: making games and having fun doing it!" Considering its divisive difficulty balance, for £3.99 on the PlayStation Store you can tackle Rayman on either your PS3, Vita, or PSP, and form your own opinion regarding its place amongst the PSone's classics. Despite all of its faults, Rayman is still a great PSone game.

Conclusion

When the first Rayman game was released as an EU PSone launch window title during late 1995, some gamers felt at odds playing a traditional side-scrolling platformer on the dawn of a fifth generation that would revolutionise 3D console graphics. Yet, the finesse of Ubisoft's 2D artistry was persuasive, so the expressive animation, vivid backgrounds, and sublime soundtrack eventually resulted in a game that 20 years later has aged more gracefully than many of PSone's polygon titles. With five permanent powers to unlock, 102 hidden Electoon cages to discover for completionists, as well as eighteen challenging memory test levels that rattle your patience, Rayman is a highly rewarding game for determined gamers. However, the journey to success is fraught with peril, and although Rayman is a limbless hero, his debut release's muscular difficulty is not for everyone.

Great review! Was hoping to see a little content related to the launch titles today - Wipeout next?

I've not played the original Rayman in years, but I remember really struggling to make headway with this round a friends house when I was younger. I feel like I should definitely go back and have another go now, seeing as it's a special occasion! I'll be rather disappointed if I can't beat it now, with all these added years of gaming "wisdom" behind me!!

Loved this game and I quite like the irony of games like this been criticised for not jumping to polygons, yet today it has aged better than most psone 3d platformers in terms of looks. Crash Bandicoot looks horrible today as do most of the early games on the system. Funny how back then we thought they looked amazing

@get2sammyb Thank you, Sammy, you’re very kind, as always. I agree, I'd be happy to write more PSone retro reviews for Push Square.

@SteveButler2210 I hear what you're saying about how you struggled when you first played Rayman. My initial experience of Rayman many moons ago was to buzz from its art style – I remember thinking how the design of the little Antitoons reminded me of sprites in SEGA's brilliant Ristar – but eventually I submitted to frustration. I was playing it in an old-school manner, I didn't even use the memory card, I tried to repeatedly collect 100 Tings to hoard extra lives, and I was recording my progress by writing down passwords. Trouble is it became laborious, because I was obsessing about rescuing Electoon cages, and I started losing lives faster than I was stockpiling them. In the context of 2015, I honestly recommend that gamers should take the pressure off at the outset, and use the ten continues cheat for endless lives. I also advise that players should not worry about finding cages for the full ending, just enjoy learning the level at first. This was much more fun for me, and it allowed me to master the more confusing level layouts, including making Rayman follow Ting trails or crawl to look for leaps of faith. Also, remember to listen for the chime sound that indicates you've triggered a change in the stage (new platforms appear, and checkpoint signposts pop up etc).

@Quintumply Issue 90 of Retro Gamer magazine is interesting for a Rayman fan, it’s from May 2011, and the feature is called The Making of Rayman. In this issue Darran Jones finds out details about its development from Michel Ancel. I reference it in my review.

I’ll hairlycopter hover around the comments on this review, just in case there are any questions about the first Rayman game. Wishing a Happy 20th Birthday to the European PSone!

The PSone version of Rayman is available on more modern systems too, for example I played the game extensively on my PS3 and PS Vita. I started a replay of Rayman from scratch on PS Vita when my skills improved, to see how much faster I could complete the levels, and it looks especially vibrant on my original Vita's OLED screen.

We also thought that reviewing one of 1995's PSone launch period games would be a nice fit as part of Push Square celebrating PlayStation's 20th Anniversary in Europe today. Check out the PSone tag for more articles about Sony's 32-bit birthday console.

Man, it has been years since I touched this game, and sadly I don't even have it anymore. I enjoy the Rayman games quite a bit, and while Origins and Legends are shining pieces of platform goodness, this game is still a classic.

I love the Rayman games, but for some odd reason, I had part 2 first...loved it and played through it to the end on not only the N64, but also bought the version on the Dreamcast. Loved both. Later on, I got a PSOne and found this one, buying it. Although I never got into it as much as the sequel, I still found love in the graphics and animation...one of the better PSOne titles that were available at the time. I still love part 2 the best (not including the Rabbids games that I always came to love) and Rayman Legends proved that the series still has potential. Here's to hoping that a new one will come for PS4 pretty soon!!!!

I got this game with my PlayStation bundle that I bought from Toys R Us in 1997, I got the non dual shock console, a 2nd controller, 5 games, 2 memory cards for £399. Let's just say I was 14 and my dad was pissed for spending that much on me he hated games consoles. 5 games where Rayman, Virtual Pinball, Actua Tennis, Worms and a real enjoyment of a racing game Total Drivin'

Anyway I never managed to complete this game I got stuck at the Mr Skorps caves levels. It was really hard as a platformer yet now I read that the game bad input lag I don't think it had it that bad.

Love reading all of your experiences with these old games. For me, in 1996, a friend sold me his PS1 and another friend let me borrow his copy of Rayman. I just had to have a PS1 after playing Resident Evil at his house. I played the hell out of it but have never even made it to Skops. I have it now from the PS Store. It fills me with much nostalgic joy to hear those tunes again and marvel at its lovely visuals.

I do love the original Rayman game, despite its flaws. It's a challenging game, and is downright brutal in places, but it's satisfying to practice and get better at a level until you're able to reach the end. The level design is quite creative as well, and each level generally brings something new to the table.

I'm glad that the first version of Rayman I played was the GBA port, as that toned down the difficulty a bit by giving you an extra bit of health compared to the PS1 version, making it a bit less frustrating. I haven't played the PS1 version, but I have completed th PC version a few times, which I think is about the same as the PS1 version except that the PC version is missing a lot of the wonderful music.